The Happening - 3/5

Meh, watch it for the interesting deaths and whatnot. The movie's downfall lies solely on the ridiculousness of what's causing all the death. Anyone want to know the big secret?

If not, then don't read this.

TREES AND PLANTS. That's right. The motherfucking trees and plants don't like us anymore and are releasing 'toxins' into the air that make people kill themselves. Awesome plot, amirite? /sarcasms

well, he's still obviously insane, but he didn't kill any one. There's a big wikipedia article weighing up the arguments for him actually killing all those people, and for him just imagining it all. And arguments certainly favour the second one.

just saw prince caspian, was a huge improvement on the first movie! still alot of cheese and some aweful acting, however i still enjoyed the movie, and it was a bit darker this time around.
btw i loved the song at then end of the movie really was a good fit.

I just haven't found anything with him intriguing, maybe it's the roles he plays or whatever. I mean I really enjoyed American Psycho but I could still find parts and such where he annoyed me. Just the style of acting, his FACE and such.

I just don't even think he's that good of an actor. It worked in American Psycho, but I just don't find him to be quite appealing.

Just saw The Happening and enjoyed it. If I had to rate it, something like 3.5/5. I enjoyed it and it was fun but not his best. I loved the deaths and such, giving it an R rating and even had a lot of humor making me laugh quite a bit. It's a typical 2008 'enviornmental awareness' type thing... once you see it you'll know.

M. Night Shyamalan has yet to disappoint me. (Still haven't seen Lady in the Water so I don't count that ).

you know who pisses me off to no end? Pauly Shore. Fuck that guy is annoying!

Oh yea, I just saw a few movies:

Shrek The Third- Wasn't as amusing as the first two. I'd give it a 3/5

Pathfinder- Just utter crap. The Indians spoke goddamn english. The vikings armor was pretty badass though.

Transporter 2- I swear, I think the Transporter movies are European car commercials.

Fast and the Furious 3 Tokyo Drift- Annoying. Why can't they just make a car movie that revolves around cars and not this stupid fucking dramas. The CGI was terrible as well. The acting was terrible, especially from the white guy and his southern accent. I hated him in this movie and hated him on Friday Night Lights

Remember The Titans- One of my favorite movies of all time. Funny movie with some heart warming stories. The soul music adds a nice touch to the soundtrack. Its also about football so its a plus for me.

I'm really liking Christian Bale as an actor, but damn Equilibrium was a bad movie. It had some really cool ideas, but failed to present anything close to intelligent.. it's like a Tarantino film that has forgotten what it's trying to do.


Snatch is hilarious.

I still want to see Pathfinder... as much as it must suck, Karl Urban as a Viking just seems like perfect casting.

Well, go see The Prestige then, it is what I will forever think of when I think of Bale. Even without Bale it still would've been damned good.

i hear it is the ultimate dissapointment, i cant bring myself to have that feeling. Seems like it could be such a great movie.

Freddy vs Jason

story and originality: 0/5
sensless entertainment 3/5

one big plus though like almost all horror flicks: BOOBIES

The only movie that has ever made me fall asleep is Pathfinder. In the movie theater, that is.

Christian Bale is fucking awesome. The Machinist, Batman Begins, The Prestige, Reign of Fire, American Psycho... He just kicks so much ass. He's a lot like Johnny Depp in that he often takes less-popular roles because they're films he wants to do. Although, he's moving up quickly into "popular" cinema with Batman and Terminator 4.

Not like Johnny Depp hasn't been in a lot of popular movies too. I think that's actually quite a good comparison.

Sick Nurses - 3/5

Weird story, it seemed better when I used the english subtitles for the Thai language instead of english dub.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sick_Nurses

The Eye - 3.25/5

Decent American remake horror; nothing really exceptional other than the fact that it reminds me of Odd Thomas and his charming misadventures, which was a plus. Time to go find the Japanese one.

The Oxford Murders - 3.25/5

Meh, not too bad, I guess. It's really only better than crap like The Black Dahlia because of the fact that it does happen to include some innovative nuance into the familiar "detective murder story" mold. Otherwise, the sex/love scenes were too overdone and elongated, and the characters were not that compelling or fleshed out. Decent, I guess, but why bother? There's tons better stuff out there.

The Kingdom 4/5

I liked it, then again it is not hard to please me with movies when Muslims are being shot. All the same I thought it had a fairly entertaining story that did not lose me and I enjoyed the ending quite a bit.

Depp obviously did the Pirates movies (thus being the only reason to watch those things), but kept on working away at the more independant-leaning stuff he is generally known for such as Sweeny Todd and The Libertine. I know he's not a big fan of "Big Hollywood" if you will. Neither Depp nor Bale (or Edward Norton for that matter) are afraid to appear in grittier independant films, nor are they afraid to take on roles that may not pay well. They always seem more interested in the film than the money. Whereas it's the opposite for people like Tom Cruise or George Clooney who tend to prefer the paycheck to honest filmmaking.

Depp, Bale, and Norton aren't afraid to play unappealing, unusual, frightening, or weird characters. But you get some of these big-name actors like Cruise or Clooney, or even Deniro or Will Smith these days and they seem like they always have to "play it safe" in a film--always the hero, never a victim, always the main attraction and under the spotlight. To boil it down--Depp, Bale, and Norton are happy to play in roles where they aren't "the cool guy."

Johnny Depp was happy to play a loser in Dead Man. He loved being essentially an effeminate coward in Sleepy Hollow. He likes weird roles like Cry Baby or Edward Scissorhands (a film where he had almost no dialog--try selling that role to most Hollywood actors). Bale played one of the best on-screen psychos since Norman Bates, starved himself into The Machinist's pitiful misanthrope, and worked his ass off to build back up to take on the role of Batman that no one wanted after the series had been so cruelly violated with Batman Forever and Batman and Robin. Ed Norton played a goody two-shoes loser in Death to Smoochy, a schitzophrenic lunatic in Fight Club, and the single best on-screen Nazi to ever grace celluloid. That's why I like all these guys--they aren't typical "Hollywood." They aren't all stuck-up and greedy. They don't always have to be the bloody center of attention when they're in a movie. They aren't afraid to play it "unsafe."

In my opinion, any actor that demands 20 million dollars per picture isn't worth the shit he drops in his gilded toilet.

Which really doesn't make much sense because they are always the cool guys

Ed Norton made a goofy guy in a rip-off Barney costume fucking cool.

Not just that, he made the whole movie watchable.

Oh yeah, if that was just Robin Williams, that would've been terrible.

movies I watched 01JUN08 - 15JUN08
(slowing down a bit)

Rambo, 2008
This is the movie by which I will judge all other straight action movies from now on! A shoot-em-up through and through, but the story does not let down either. The story is admittedly thin, but you dont go to a movie like this expecting a story. And Sly? Fit as ever and more bad-ass than the three prior Rambos. And so brutal! Not for the squeamish or children.

Women of the Prehistoric Planet, 1966
The MST3K version of this stinker. I liked this one as they had a short interview with one of the actors reminiscing about her time on the set and how crappy it was.

Mystery of the Sphinx, 1993
Another Charlton Heston hosted documentary about the ancient world. Apparently there is some actual debate among scholars as to the age of the Great Sphinx. Mainstream Egyptologists v. mainstream geologists. And no one can agree!

Atomic Submarine, 1959
A rather boring sci-fi underwater adventure involving submersible UFOs. Interesting idea, but the script was lacking and the effects could have been done better even for the time period.

Hogfather, 2007
The first live-action adaptation of Terry Pratchet's Discworld series. This follows the adventures of Death as he takes over for the Hogfather (and Santa Claus like entity) because Teatime is holding him hostage. Made for TV, but still pretty good. Cannot wait for the others to be put on DVD. Not a substitute for the books, though.

I Was a Teenage Zombie, 1987
A great low-budget horror-comedy. Starts out as a teen-flick where the group gets ripped off on a marijuana deal. They try to get their money back, but end up killing the dealer. He returns as a zombie to seek vengeance and starts to pick off the kids. They realize they need someone of equal super zombie strength. Hilarity ensues.

Mysteries of the Ancient World, 1994
A Reader's Digest compilation of three good documentaries separated by geographical location. Not the crazy Atlantinian stuff I have been watching, but the straight facts as discover through archeology and other sciences. There is so much of interest and things to be discovered about our past that I wonder why we need to create fantasy to 'liven' it up.

National Treasure: Book of Secrets, 2007
What a stinker! I had high hopes for this one based on its predecessor, but it blew. Politically correct poop also.

In the Realm of the Senses, 1976
Wow! This was great. A Japanese film that cannot be shown in Japan in full due to censorship. Hardcore and brutal - this is the story of a maid girl and her married master and their torrid love affair.

Phenomena, 1984
A too-much-at-once horror. A stalker is killing girls an an exclusive American-style high school in Switzerland. Jenifer Connelly (my what large eyebrows you have) is freinds with bugs and uses them to stop the killer. Rather pointless....BUT Iron Maiden and Motörhead songs are featured! The songs chosen were rather strange to me as they are not either of the band's 'hits' - stuff I considered to be more or less 'filler.' Still, though, songs from my two favorite bands (from about 1992-1996) featured is something!

Trick or Treat, 1986
I am sure most of you know this one. Features Ozzy (who I thought did a pretty good job - wanted more) and Gene Simmons. Satanic resurrection and heavy metal. An outcast uses the powers of his favorite metal singer who died a few days prior seek to revenge on the jocks who picked on him, but loses control.

As an arab, I didn't hate this movie at all. It was pretty accurate on times, and understanding what the saudi guys said was a plus.

But what I didn't like about the movie is how the americans came in and, in just a matter of days, discovered everything, as if the saudis couldn't think of anything. And the shooting scene near the end, how only a few guys survived in a place like that.

Still, it's a very good movie.


And Ed Wood.

The speaking of Fight Club has made me think of Brad Pitt. He's been in an odd amount of awesome films considering how pretty he is. Fight Club, Snatch, Seven are all great. Hell, until Mr & Mrs Smith I don't think he's really done a generic hollywood movie. Unless I'm forgetting some crap that he's done.

Funny Games (US or original, doesnt matter)
Want a sledgehammer blow to the stomach? Something really disturbing?
Watch THIS! Sick shit!

When I watched the original version 12 years ago (I was 18 back than) I couldnt think straight for two days.

I just watched Wild Hogs. I enjoyed it. Funny. 8/10.

Soo the "blind purchases" thread regarding albums got me thinking about DVD's, because I tend to make a lot of blind purchases solely on genre and reviews. Most of the time it's turned out great. Anyone else?

Yeah man I've had quite a few good ones. Chopper, Scum, Trainspotting, Layer Cake, Animal Factory, The Big Lebowski, Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, Highlander, The Machinist, Training Day, Carlito's Way, Serpico, Road to Perdition, Panic in Needle Park, Jackie Brown, Natural Born Killers, Sexy Beast, Straw Dogs, Romper Stomper, Made in Britain, Ferris Beuller's Day Off, Being John Malkovich, The Prestige...

On the other hand, Soul Man was highly meh, as were another couple, but I never pay more than a fiver for films I've not seen anyway.

And then we have the *really* long list of blind purchases that I've still not watched - The Killing Fields, The Deer Hunter, Deliverence, A Time to Kill, Casino, Donnie Brasco, City Hall, Dog Day Afternoon, Where the Buffalo Roam, and so on and so forth.

I had a lot of blind rentals, the most notable being Mr. Brooks, although surely there are many more.

You forgot to mention Twelve Monkeys, which ruled unequivocally.

That was also sort of a blind rental and definitely one of my favorites. Same for Stranger than Fiction.

Now I've not seen that, but hear it's really good. But then I hear it's a romantic comedy starring Will Ferrell, and those two things put me off (because I'm not a fan, with the exception of Anchorman which is the funniest movie since Monty Python & the Holy Grail, and romantic comedies aren't my thing.)

It's better than most movies of its kind, not stereotypical or any kind of typical. It's just a stunning, uplifting, feel good kind of movie, and it is one of my favorites.

Cool, I'll have to get round to checking it out in that case. I've got to admit, I enjoyed High Fidelity, but that might be because music is so integral to that guy's life.

Tonight, we're called SONIC DEATH MONKEY!

I haven't seen a lot of his other movies.

What do you guys all think of Morgan Freeman? I'm gonna watch The Bucket List tomorrow.

Morgan Freeman is awesome. Not as badass as Denzel Washington (he's like Harrison Ford dipped in chocolate) but awesome in his own way. The Bucket List looks quite interesting, though I'm not going to see it. I don't often go to see movies (which is why I have so many blind purchases) though I will be going to see The Dark Knight which looks purely boneriffic.

Yeah, he's like someone you'd want as a surrogate grandfather or something. Plus, he was in Se7en, which would make him great even if he hadn't also been in Shawshank and other movies. And Bruce Almighty was fun.

And yes, The Dark Fucking Knight will be awesome.

Yeah, Stranger Than Fiction was very good for what it was. Nice to see Farrel act fairly well. He's not stupid for the main part, and he does come across quite convincingly.

Morgan Freeman is the fucking man. He's in so many good movies. And he has the perfect narrator voice.

Freeman's occasional narration in Shawshank is spot on perfect. Actually, pretty much everything in that movie is...